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Rules Q&A » Post: 608.2g and cards like Tribute to Hunger

608.2g and cards like Tribute to Hunger

July 19, 2014 04:56:27 PM

Lasse Kulmala
Judge (Uncertified)

Europe - North

608.2g and cards like Tribute to Hunger

Hi.
I understand that with effects like Tribute to Hunger where you first sac or destroy a creature and then use the creatures characteristics to determine something else (like in this case life gain) you use the last known information and specifically the information from battlefield.
On the other hand reading through 608.2g (and other similar rules that contain the word ‘expected’) I can't help but feel that the wording of those rules gives different result than the one described above. Since Tribute to Hunger first tells you to sacrifice a creature and only then checks the characteristics of that creature wouldn't the expected zone be the graveyard and not the battlefield. With the wording of the rule 608.2g as it is I would understand that if the card can't be found in the graveyard (because it was exiled because of a replacement effect for example) that you would then use the last known information as it existed in the battlefield instead.
I'm not trying to debate rulings here, I accept that we use the LKI from battlefield instead of the current information from the graveyard with cards like Tribute to Hunger. What I'm asking is could someone explain how 608.2g leads to last known information from the battlefield instead of current information from graveyard since as far as I could find ‘expected zone’ is not defined anywhere and if a creature is to be sacrificed the most natural expected zone for that creature would be the graveyard in my opinion.

Edited Lasse Kulmala (July 19, 2014 04:56:44 PM)